A few months ago we published a map of the players involved in the App discovery value chain. A lot of has happened since and we decided to update.

This is something we constantly keep track of for ourself, our shareholders and now for you.

Many of those companies are direct competitors of Appsfire and we’re happy to see this field we pioneered getting more and more sophisticated every day. To be frank this is really insane; we observe on average about one to two new services per week trying to adress the problem of how apps are found, discovered and promoted. Many of them are copycats (especially in the deal tracking bubble), but some are really good and innovative. It was impossible to list everyone. We just wanted to give you a taste of some of the key players (both iOS and Android)

One note: we have not associated Appsfire to one particular bubble because we are not in one particular bubble only only. We are in many (immersive discovery, deal trackers, social discovery, search,…) and there are a few bubbles we are not and will never be (Incentivized Download….guess why)

Some key takeaways:

• The discovery process is not owned by the App Stores: Yes you can and you will find apps to download in the App Store. But just like for music and movies people are hungry for efficient discovery channels or experiences that the App Stores themselves can’t provide. Either because users are not happy with the experience (not personal enough, too slow…) or because the stores are built like “stores” and users feel they want additional context to make a decision (their friends, professional reviews…)
• App Discovery is a fragmented industry: You will find there many different services. Some are consumer services, some are just B2B2C (Business to business to consumer), some are merely professionals (ad networks or rings).
• VC and M&A are hot: Lots of those players have raised money or are being acquired (see the red/green dots in the legend). We believe this is just the beginning of a big wave of micro acquisition and mergers in the next 24 months.
• Discovery occurs in many forums that are not explicitly discovery-oriented: App discovery takes place, like music or movies, in many places including generic web properties like social networks or tech blogs. Why? Because apps are a new form of digital media and they are constantly covered and talked about. Why? because apps are the new way to customize your phone to your need and as personal items they shine out of their natural environment: “App Stores”.
• A courtyard with big and small guys: It is interesting to observe that all sorts of players are tying to find the key to the kingdom. Giants like Bing, Yahoo, super-funded companies like Tapjoy, Flurry and Getjar, young VC backed companies like ourselves, self-funded players like AppAdvice….Our view: there will not be one winner. There was not in music, There was not in movies. It is just too big and too complex for one player only.
• A US courtyard mostly: Interesting to observe that the very large part of this pie is owned by US players. Not a surprise this is the most sophisticated market in the world…But also the most daring (financing).
• Mobile ad networks (tangentially): They are not in the map (admob, millenial,…) although they do participate in the process of app discovery (more specifically, promotion). But we did not include them there because they are not specific to apps.
• App Discovery is not always a free service to developers: Many developers find that down the road, most of those services are paid services. Rarely you will get exposure for free. Some review sites review apps for free, but some ask you to pay a fee (nothing wrong with that but sometimes some do not disclose it to their readers…), some will take a commission of sales, some have a pay per install program….Yep, app discovery is a real business…just like SEO or SEM is rarely a free service..

If you have suggestions or comments please contact us but note in advance we could not place everyone. It is just impossible.